Impact of industrial waste water treatment plants on Dutch surface waters and drinking water sources

Wezel, Annemarie P. van; Hurk, F. van den; Sjerps, R.M.A.; Meijers, Erwin; Roex, Erwin; Laak, Thomas L. ter

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.05.325

Cited by 33 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…The SOLUTIONS approaches and models have been used to test the efficacy of end-of-pipe measures in the wastewater chain to alleviate effects in surface waters [15,16]. We demonstrated this in the Rhine Basin Case Study, first by evaluating the changes brought about by extra wastewater treatment throughout the basin, to evaluate the potential effect of such measures.…”

Section: Cost-effective Abatementmentioning

confidence: 99%

The European Collaborative Project SOLUTIONS developed models to provide diagnostic and prognostic capacity and fill data gaps for chemicals of emerging concern

et al. 2019

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The European Union Water Framework Directives aims at achieving good ecological status in member states' water bodies. Insufficient ecological status could be the result of different interacting stressors, among them the presence of many thousands of chemicals. The diagnosis of the likelihood that these chemicals negatively affect the ecological status of surface waters or human health, and the subsequent development of abatement measures usually relies on water quality monitoring. This gives an incomplete picture of chemicals' contamination, due to the limited number of monitoring stations, samples and substances. Information gaps thus limit the possibilities to protect against and effectively manage chemicals in aquatic ecosystems. The EU FP7 SOLUTIONS project has developed and validated a collection of integrated models ("Model Train") to increase our understanding of issues related to emerging chemicals in Europe's river basins and to complement information and knowledge derived from field data. Unlike pre-existing models, the Model Train is suitable to model mixtures of thousands of chemicals, to better approach a "real-life" mixture exposure situation. It can also be used to model new chemicals at a stage where not much is known about them. The application of these models on a European scale provides temporally and spatially variable concentration data to fill gaps in the space, time and substance domains left open by water quality monitoring, and it provides homogeneous data across Europe where water quality data from monitoring are missing. Thus, it helps to avoid overlooking candidate chemicals and possible hot spots for management intervention. The application of the SOLUTIONS Model Train on a European scale presents a relevant line of evidence for water system level prognostic and diagnostic impact assessment related to chemical pollution. The application supports the design of cost-effective programmes of measures by helping to identify the most affected sites and the responsible substances, by evaluating alternative abatement options and by exploring the consequences of future trends. which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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Section: Cost-effective Abatementmentioning

confidence: 99%

The European Collaborative Project SOLUTIONS developed models to provide diagnostic and prognostic capacity and fill data gaps for chemicals of emerging concern

et al. 2019

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“…This clearly shows the high potential of focused regulatory measures to reduce the total chemical burden in general [31]. But specifically, the water quality change in relation to SVHC-focused emission reduction measures appeared to be more than proportional, driven by non-linear exposure-effect relationships (see also [32,33]).…”

Section: Exploring Future Optionsmentioning

confidence: 89%

Exploring the ‘solution space’ is key: SOLUTIONS recommends an early-stage assessment of options to protect and restore water quality against chemical pollution

et al. 2019

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Present evaluations of chemical pollution in European surface and groundwater bodies focus on problem description and chemical classification of water quality. Surprisingly, relatively low attention has been paid to solutions of chemical pollution problems when those are encountered. Based on evaluations of current practices and available approaches, we suggest that water quality protection, monitoring, assessment and management of chemical pollution can be improved by implementing an early-stage exploration of the 'solution space'. This follows from the innovative paradigm of solution-focused risk assessment, which was developed to improve the utility of risk assessments. The 'solution space' is defined as the set of potential activities that can be considered to protect or restore the water quality against hazards posed by chemical pollution. When using the paradigm, upfront exploration of solution options and selecting options that would be feasible given the local pollution context would result in comparative risk assessment outcomes. The comparative outcomes are useful for selecting optimal measures against chemical pollution for management prioritization and planning. It is recommended to apply the solution-focused risk assessment paradigm to improve the chemical pollution information for river basin management planning. To operationalize this, the present paper describes a still-growing database and strategy to find and select technical abatement and/ or non-technical solution options for chemical pollution of surface waters. The solutions database and strategy can be applied to help prevent and reduce water quality problems. Various case studies show that implementing these can be effective, and how solution scenarios can be evaluated for their efficacy by comparative exposure and effect assessment.

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“…This procedure is applied to transfer matrices for both wet (first quarter of 2007) and dry (second quarter of 2011) conditions. Previous implementations of the WFD-Explorer have shown how transfer matrices constructed using nominal tracer values can be used to model the transport of other contaminants through SWUs [2,18]. This study employs a similar procedure but takes a novel approach by labelling all discharge from point sources (WWTPs, TRs) as fully conservative tracers.…”

Section: Metamodel Transfer Matricesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, the range of land and water usages located in proximity to WWTPs suggests that de facto reuse is prevalent nationally. Existing studies have shown that TWW exerts a significant impact on many surface water bodies in terms of water quality [2,18], but have failed to address the contribution of wastewater to the discharge of surface water bodies. Without this knowledge, it is impossible to draw links between wastewater discharges and societal water uses, hence neglecting the assessment of the occurrence of de facto water reuse.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Following the Water: Characterising de facto Wastewater Reuse in Agriculture in the Netherlands

2019

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De facto (or indirect) wastewater reuse is the practice of extracting from surface water bodies which are impacted by treated wastewater (TWW) for anthropogenic use. The extent to which surface water bodies in the Netherlands are impacted by TWW is poorly understood, and the distribution of de facto reuse even more so. This study addresses these knowledge gaps, with a focus on reuse for agricultural irrigation. This is achieved via a novel application of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) Explorer water quality model, allowing for the distribution of different flow components-namely TWW and flow from transboundary rivers-to be discerned for the national surface water network. When paired with data on surface water extractions for irrigation, this identifies notable areas of de facto reuse. Results show that during dry conditions, TWW is a significant flow component in many surface water bodies, particularly in smaller streams located close to WWTPs. De facto reuse is indicated as widespread, with several key areas identified in which extractions are from impacted surface water bodies. This study represents a first attempt to directly link TWW emissions to agricultural irrigation, highlighting a mechanism by which wastewater-associated contaminants can propagate through the hydrological system.

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Impact of industrial waste water treatment plants on Dutch surface waters and drinking water sources

Cited by 33 publications

References 75 publications

The European Collaborative Project SOLUTIONS developed models to provide diagnostic and prognostic capacity and fill data gaps for chemicals of emerging concern

The European Collaborative Project SOLUTIONS developed models to provide diagnostic and prognostic capacity and fill data gaps for chemicals of emerging concern

Exploring the ‘solution space’ is key: SOLUTIONS recommends an early-stage assessment of options to protect and restore water quality against chemical pollution

Following the Water: Characterising de facto Wastewater Reuse in Agriculture in the Netherlands

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